DROP-IN CENTRE TO OPEN FOR STREET KIDS

A Place To Have A Meal, A Shower, Drug Counselling

Street kids in Vancouver are geting a new 24-hour-a-day drop-in centre
where they can get a meal, a shower, addictions counselling and help
finding a job or a home.

The new centre, in an old radio station building on Burrard across from St.
Paul's Hospital, will open in November.

MLA Lorne Mayencourt led a media tour of the under-construction centre
yesterday.

Run by Family Services of Greater Vancouver and funded by three levels of
government, it cost about $1 million to build and has an operating budget
of about $2 million.

The centre replaces two facilities now run by Family Services: the Dusk to
Dawn drop-in centre at St. Paul's and the daytime resource centre at 1065
Seymour St., said Teri Nicholas of Family Services.

Area residents were opposed to kids hanging around the building, so there
will be an indoor smoking room to discourage loitering outside.

Counsellors will be able to refer youths to Family Services detox or
treatment. "They can come in if they're high" on drugs or alcohol, but drug
use won't be allowed on the property, Nicholas said.

Mayencourt said the centre was located in the area of the downtown that he
calls south Vancouver instead of the downtown eastside because "kids are
afraid to go down there," he said.

The centre is not a shelter but director Renata Aebi said there is a need
for more shelter beds.

The centre is the first of four planned, one in each sector of Vancouver,
Mayencourt said.